Muslim men who marry non-Muslims ‘by concealing identity’ commit grave sin: UP cleric

A cleric associated with the Dargah-e-Aala Hazrat (Barelvi) in Uttar Pradesh has issued a fatwa that Muslim men who “conceal their religious identity to marry non-Muslim women” are very close to being ostracised from the community and that such marriages are void.

Maulana Shahbuddin Razvi, president of the All India Muslim Jamaat, an organisation associated with the Dargah Hazrat, said at a press conference in Bareilly on March 5, “In Islam, putting a tilak on the forehead, knotting braids and wearing the kalawa on the wrist are treated as gunahe kabira (grave sin difficult to be pardoned), but some Muslim men do this in order to conceal their religious identity and marry women belonging to the other community. Such actions that amount to concealing one’s religious identity are haram (forbidden) in Islam and thus such marriages are illegal.”

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Razvi recently hit the headlines when he termed the marriage between actress Swara Bhaskar and SP leader Fahad Ahmed “illegitimate”, saying that the union would be valid only if Bhaskar accepted Islam.

Razvi was asked by one Dr Mohammed Naeem about Muslim men marrying Hindu women “by concealing their identity”. Answering Dr Naeem’s query, Razvi said those following Islam should always remember that their religion had given them a “grand way of life” and some markers of identity (skullcaps and the beard) that show they are Muslims.

“Concealing one’s identity is totally unacceptable in Islam and any act (such as marriage) performed through hidden marks of identification is a grave sin,” Razvi said at the press conference on Sunday afternoon.